Swiss Household Panel

The principal aim of the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) is to observe social change, in particular the dynamics of changing living conditions and representations in the population of Switzerland. It is an annual panel study based on a random sample of private households in Switzerland over time, interviewing all household members mainly by telephone.

The SHP constitutes a unique longitudinal database for Switzerland and is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The survey covers a broad range of topics and approaches in the social sciences. Data collection started in 1999 with a sample of 5’074 households containing 12’931 household members. In 2004 a second sample of 2’538 households with a total of 6’569 household members was added; and since 2013 the SHP contains a third sample of 4’093 households with 9’945 individuals. Response rates have remained high in all three samples.

The data from the Swiss Household Panel is freely accessible to the scientific community on FORSbase (see data).

Open access publication with SHP-data: Social Dynamics in Swiss Society

Edited by Robin Tillmann, Marieke Voorpostel, and Peter Farago, this book uses longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel to zoom in on continuity and change in the life course. This open access book describes how the lives of the Swiss population have changed in terms of health, family circumstances, work, political participation, and migration over the last sixteen years. What are the different trajectories in terms of mobility, health, wealth, and family constellations? What are the drivers behind all these changes over time and in the life course? And what are the implications for inequality in society and for social policy?

20 years of the Swiss Household Panel. Register for the conference of panel data users

How do (nonstandard) occupational trajectories affect health ?

Francesco Giudici and Davide Morselli have analyzed data from the life history calendar of the Swiss Household Panel to observe occupational trajectories across the lifespan. The results show that discontinuous […]